Personal Survival Kit. And Man Crates.

Have you guys heard about Man Crates yet?  Man Crates is trying to become the ultimate resource of gifts for men.  I think their idea is brilliant.  It's like a gift basket full of awesomeness.  But delivered in a wooden crate.

With a crowbar to open it.

For example, the zombie survival kit for the Walking Dead enthusiast in your life?

I think the best bet for The Man would be the Slaughterhouse Crate.

Because, meat.

What else?

They have a ton of options and the fact that they have to be opened  with a crowbar has my brain thinking this is something I need to be ordering for The Man's birthday.

(Since I forsee Man Crates becoming huge, I'd like to steal a second of their time and suggest a crate for that motorcross, four-wheeling, razor riding enthusiast.  The type of which I have living at my house.)

Man Crates wanted to know what I would keep in my own personal survival kit.

I thought of 5 daily things I need to survive the schedule of working mom who's also going to school.

1. McD's Coke.  Say what you will about soda pop.  Say what you will about drinking said soda pop in a styrofoam cup.  This stuff is my happy place.  

An even happier place?  Make it a Dirty Coke from Sonic.

2. 3x5 index cards.  I know, that's a bit strange, but honestly, I use them for everything.

Weekly menu planning
Shopping lists
Flashcards for studying
Notes to kids' teachers
To Do lists
Lessons and talks in church
Devotional and Firesides even.  All written out in idea segments on 3x5 index cards.

Guys, I keep a small stack of them in my purse, just in case.

Take a solid look at this picture of the shopping list we have hanging on our magnet board for the kids to add items to as we run out.

Let me know when you see it.

I live in a house of comedians (And no, I'm talking about the fact that we apparently really need more ranch dressing).

3. Sunglasses.

The sunlight... it burns... it burns...

4. Younique 3-D Eyelashes.  It's like eyelash extensions in a mascara bottle.  And it washes off like regular mascara.  I don't leave the house without it.

Unless I've just had Lasik and am not allowed to wear it for a week, and let me tell you, that was a harsh week to make it through.

If you haven't yet, find yourself a consultant (google it, there are a million of them) and get yourself some of this stuff.

Better yet, if you want to order some, let me know and I'll get you hooked up with my consultant.  Seriously though.

5. A John Grisham book.

The man is a literary genius.  I don't care what you say.  Want to borrow one?  I own them all.  Luckily Grisham feels the need to publish a new book every single fall.

This makes Christmas shopping for me an easy task for The Man.

Speaking of easy Christmas shopping, I need to go place an order at Man Crates.

*Man Crates did contact me to write a personal survival kit post, but I did not receive anything for doing so.  My opinions and words are all my own.

3 Things I'm Loving Right Now. And A Lot Of Talk About Them.

One.

I put off taking my math classes until the very end.  

Like, the very end.  I graduate after I finish this semester with political science and math and next semester after a second math class.  The end.  

So pretty much, math stands between me and graduation.

(Strictly speaking about the community college and my associate's here, I won't be done as I'll go up to U of U to finish my bachelor's).

The last time I took a math class was... 17 years ago when I was a junior in high school.

17 years ago.

And all I recall about math is that I hated it.  I did it because I had to, but I really hated it.  And whether it's true or not, I remember that I felt I wasn't very good at it (though that may just be because it didn't come as easily to me as English did, since I still got good grades in math, I just had to work really hard for it Or so I felt).

So the trepidation of having math stand between me and my May graduation, my milestone of no more generals, was there in the back of my mind.

My sister-in-law, Sheri, told me that math as an adult was much different than math as a 17 year old and I needed to relax.  

It will be good, she said.

I've been waking up and dragging myself to campus every morning before work for math class for a month and a half now and all I can say about it is... Sheri was right.

I get it.

And more than that, I kind of even really like it.

I really didn't see this coming.

Two.

Over the weekend The Man and I went to Buckle to exchange an item of The Man's.  Brynn tagged along and while we were waiting for him to find what he was exchanging for we started smelling all the bottles of perfume they had sitting on the counter.

I picked up a pretty, sparkly bottle and smelled it.

Guys I can't even tell you how happy the smell of that perfume made me.

I was almost giddy over it.

I'd been wanting to find a good, every day perfume but after a trip to Sephora I was discouraged and quit looking.  They all smelt like alcohol I thought.

But this perfume... this perfume was made for me.  

I turned the bottle over in my hand to see the name of it and burst out laughing.

I'm neither here nor there when it comes to Taylor Swift.  I like some of her songs, I don't like some of her songs.

Whatever.

But guys, that lady can do perfume.  

My man loves me and bought it for me.

Now here's the kick in the pants.

Last night while we were at Target looking for coats for the kids (insert small tantrum here for the fact that it's getting cold enough to be thinking about coats) Brynn noticed that Target also carried my wonderful Wonderstruck perfume... for a whole $20 cheaper than we had bought it for at Buckle.

Two things:

I'm disgruntled that we paid $20 extra for it at Buckle.  I had no idea it was sold elsewhere.  Buckle was the first place I had seen it so in my mind I kind of thought maybe it was exclusive?  I'm no perfume connoisseur so I don't much about how these things work.  

Obviously.

But to know that I can buy it cheaper at Target (here if you're interested) makes me even more happy that I can afford to wear it as an everyday perfume and not feel too badly about it.

Three.

And one final shot from this ramble:

Have you had a Sonic Dirty Coke yet?

Watch out McDonald's, there's a new love in my life.

Also, there's a recipe for them on pinterest here and this weekend while I'm out shopping you know I'm going to be tracking down coconut syrup.

I die.

Set me on a beach with a good book and a dirty Coke and I will have found perfection in life.